The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) may reintroduce the track and trace system for tobacco products through a modified strategy in late June 2021, when a high court ruled that the previous system was not valid.
According to a country based report on Pakistan released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday. Pakistani authorities have issued a letter of intent (LOI) to re-institute the track and trace system by the end of June 2021.
“The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has declared the procurement process not valid, related to track and trace licenses to deal with the smuggling of tobacco products and suspended the track and trace system for tobacco products,” according to the report.
Report by IMF
From this experience, the authorities are trying to reintroduce the tracking and trace system of tobacco products by the end of June 2021. Authorities intends to consider it for other sectors also like sugar, beverages, and cement to control the high level smuggling from the country.
“In order to make tax policy measures a success and to achieve the expected revenue. We need to reform tax administration and increase implementation,” officials said. To this end, we will focus on:
(i) Introduce centralized, risk-based compliance function;
(ii) modernizing the IT system and advancing automation;
(iii) actively use third party data, strengthen data cross-checking and analysis;
(iv) simplify the registration and filing process;
(v) modernize audit methods and accomplish more audit goals; and
(vi) To further strengthen the Large taxpayers’ segment and increase the activities of the Large Taxpayers Office (LTO).
In addition, authorities will continue the process of harmonizing sales taxes. By implementing single returns and taxpayer portals by the end of June 2021.
Track & Trace System | FBR | Federal Board of Revenue | IMF | International Monetary Fund | Tobacco | Islamabad High court |
